To ensure a comfortable afterlife, the ancient Egyptians built tombs resembling fortresses and filled them with precious goods, a practice that produced incredible quantities of artifacts over thousands of years, but also attracted thieves and tomb robbers to Egypt since antiquity.

This edition, based on modern scientific research, reports, and contemporary sources, chronicles the history of treasure hunters in Egypt and the social contexts in which they operated, revealing impressive continuous lines through time. Readers will recognize the weaknesses of today's politicians and crooks, the dangers of materialism, and the cycles of public compliance and protest against injustice. Describing an ancient pursuit and its timeless motivations, A Short History of Tomb-Raiding shows how much we have in common with our Bronze Age ancestors.

Pages: 304, Dimensions: 12.9x12.9cm